c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The persecution of Christians abroad is an issue fast gaining ground on Capitol Hill.

It became a rallying point for conservative opposition to granting China Most Favored Nation trading status, and legislation has been introduced to clamp trade and other sanctions on nations found to persecute Christians and others on the basis of religion.

Those pushing the issue, such as Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious Freedom, say Christians are the world’s most persecuted religious group today.

In terms of the number of individuals affected,”this is the worst century of persecution of Christians ever,”Shea said Monday (June 23) at a Capitol Hill roundtable on the issue, sponsored by Empower America, a conservative Washington-based advocacy group.

Shea and others repeatedly point to”remnant”communist nations _ such as China and Vietnam _ as well as”militant”Islamic countries _ Sudan and Iran _ as the primary persecutors of Christians. Moreover, they include Iranian Bahai’s, Tibetan Buddhists and moderate Muslims in Sudan and elsewhere as also being victimized by religious persecution.

Still, many Muslim and Arab-American leaders are watching the religious persecution debate with great suspicion, viewing it as little more than a manifestation of Arab and Muslim bashing.”To say the least, the approach being taken is terribly one-sided,”said Mayer Hathout, a senior advisor to the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council.”We should oppose religious persecution everywhere, but why are Muslim nations so prominently singled out?”Muslims were persecuted in China for years prior to this year’s MFN debate, but no one spoke out in their defense. What about Muslims in Burma? In Bosnia? In Kashmir? Why are they forgotten?”asked Hathout, a retired cardiologist who often briefs members of Congress on Muslim issues.

In interviews, Muslim and Arab-American critics of the religious persecution debate point to the predominance of conservative Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants pushing the issue.

At Monday’s Capitol Hill roundtable, for example, the vast majority of the two dozen or so members of Congress and representatives of activist groups in attendance were conservative Christians.

Included were top officials of the Christian Coalition, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Christian Solidarity International, the Family Research Council and the National Association of Evangelicals. No Muslims were invited to participate, although a handful of Jews, Baha’is and Tibetan Buddhists were on hand.

Muslims and Arab-Americans interpret this preponderance of conservative Christians as evidence of a deeper agenda than the stated human-rights reasons for helping Christians and others who have been imprisoned or tortured because of their religious beliefs.

To these critics, the debate masks such motives as forcing Muslim nations to allow Christian proselytizing, and diverting public attention from what they view as Israel’s persecution of Muslim and Christian Palestinians to help the Jewish state maintain control over Jerusalem.

Discussion of the problems faced by Baha’is and Buddhists, say the critics, is a fig leaf covering an abiding interest in Christian concerns above all others. “They are knowingly or unwittingly pushing a clash of civilizations pitting Muslims against Christians for world dominance,”said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington.”This can only make persecution worse.” Awad said those behind the religious persecution issue are”misinforming the American public. They know it is despotic leaders, not Islam, that is the cause of persecution in some Muslim nations.”The persecution is political, not religious,”he said.

Sam Husseini, media director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, called the debate”reflective of the neo-colonial mindset that is prevalent in much of the evangelical world.” It’s”no coincidence,”said Husseini, that the religious persecution debate is occurring concurrent with the political struggle for Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians.”The point is to draw Christian support away from the Palestinians, who are mainly Muslim,”he said.

Such criticisms were dismissed out of hand by William Bennett, the former Reagan-administration secretary of education who is now a co-director of Empower America.”That’s not my motivation in any way,”said Bennett, who is Catholic, during a break at Monday’s roundtable.”We’re trying to be as evenhanded as we can be. It just so happens to be that the majority of religious persecution today is taking place in Muslim nations.” However, one of the few Jews, or liberals, among the two-dozen activists and members of Congress attending the roundtable said some of those pushing the religious persecution issue are primarily concerned with Christian concerns above all others, including opening Muslim doors to missionary work.”That’s a concern,”said Mark Pelavin, associate director of Reform Judaism’s Religious Action Center.”That’s why we’re at this table with folks we are often at odds with _ to insure that the broader agenda of religious persecution of all peoples is not forgotten.” The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, a Catholic priest with the Institute on Religion and Public Life in New York, also warned against turning the religious persecution debate into a Muslim-Christian battleground.

But he also said Christians should not shy away from admitting they seek greater opportunities to evangelize in the Muslim world.”Christians have to be very up-front about this,”he said.”It’s part of the debate; it cannot not be a part of this if you are a believing Christian. But is it the driving force? No. It’s concern for people who are suffering. That must be clear if we are not to be misinterpreted by Muslims.”

MJP END RIFKIN